Internet-based marketing is the #1 trend being pushed at small business folk right now.

Brick & mortar for many has come down to click & order.

Navigating the complex landscape of vendors in numerous cyber-markets peddling solutions to this issue can be dizzying,

frustrating, and downright disappointing.

So for those who do offer a legitimate product at a great price on-line, and have a user-friendly and

informative website as well, the question remains;

How does one get targeted traffic to first show up, second, to buy from them on their site, and third, to keep coming back?

For myself, I'm sure the the second and third goals will actualize on thier own, as long as I can start with, or generate not just traffic, but the right kind of visitors stopping by, and obviously they'llneed to visit in great volume for anything to happen.

So what do you think are the top 3 ways to generate legit web traffic?

Of course lack of affordability is what holds many of us back from experiencing the best that money can buy.

Is your business is an eCommerce shopping cart selling several products/services? If so, consider listing your products to various shopping comparison sites like Google Base.

You can also open a blog. Blog about the latest news surrounding your products and services, or post interesting and useful facts. For example, if you were selling cat supplies, you may want to discuss the merits of organic cat food, or talk about the doubts owners might have about catnip. Displaying extensive knowledge about your industry, especially with content that can directly help your customer, will help raise your credibility and drive more targeted traffic to read about you. Naturally, you can cross-promote your store within your blog.

Marketing your blog should be pretty easy, too. Tweet your posts to your followers, or try to become a guest blogger at a popular blog with tons of readers. That's a lot of potential customers right there, and it's all targeted because you're posting at a blog related to your industry.

However, once you get the traffic there's no guarantee they'll buy right away. Outside of ensuring your store has high usability (you did mention it was user-friendly, so that's great) you'll need to convince your buyers that your product is the best. Don't forget to promote your Unique Value Proposition - essentially, the one thing that makes you stand out from your competitors.

When you're looking to buy online, what you do normally do first? Read, right? You want as much information as possible on what you're about to buy so you won't regret the purchase. To do this, you'll need compelling, convincing and informative copy. The copy (web content) on your store and webpages have to both address the customer's concerns, persuade them to buy, and provide all the information they need all at once.

Let's say we're still selling cat supplies. Which copy would convice the visitor to buy?

We are selling green cat food. It comes in chicken and fish flavors. There are 20 vitamins and minerals. It is 10.00 a pound.

This is very basic and tells the customer all they need to know. That's fine. But, what makes buying from you better than just going to Pet Smart? They're not convinced.

Healthy cats make happy owners!

Our exclusive brand of organic cat food makes it easier then ever to nourish your cat - and help the enviornment as well.

This unique blend comes in two delicious flavors, chicken with rice and smoked salmon, and loaded with 20 vitamins and minerals to keep cats of all ages strong and fit longer.

All payments are done through PayPal for the utmost in security. We do not collect your credit card information.

We ship the same day for all domestic orders made before 4PM EST. Free shipping for all orders over 50.00!

I had to type this out quickly so it may need some polish, but you see what I mean. The copywriting here is descriptive, details the benefits clearly, is free of errors, and convincing. You can write these yourself, but that may take too much time. In that case, there are copywriters who can do this for you. The investment you make in hiring a copywriter who writes compelling copy that sells will pay for itself through increased conversions. (I happen to be a feelance ecommerce copywriter. )

To keep visitors coming back, you can ask them to subscribe to a newsletter, or promote sales and promotions from time to time. Excellent customer service, a smooth transaction and fast shipping would definitely get me coming back. Keep your blog updated regularly as well - these customers will subscribe to your blog for your useful information. When they see you as the authority of your niche, they'll trust you, refer you to friends (more customers!) and remain loyal.

People argue that it's much more important to keep your current customers happy over new ones. Yes, you should definitely keep the current ones happy since they bring repeated, almost guaranteed business - but one shouldn't neglect the new, maybe hesitant prospects as well.

Thanks for your time and your highly-detailed, and intelliegently comprehensive suggestions. (So tired of one or two-word smart-alec replies that don't really lend any significant value to the discussion.:-)

I've tried a few of your suggestions, like writing informative articles (in strategic on-line venues) and writing my own blogs, but the problem I face there is that they are not being read, or maybe just being ignored. I keep hearing info about 'monetizing' your blog if you want results, but have not investigated this in-depth.

I believe that in marketing a new product like mine, (personal oxygen for sports and fitness) while no doubt being positively revolutionary, one faces several barriers like getting folks to trust dealing with an unknown entity online, confidence in making that first purchase, (on-line) and separating the truth from all the hype, etc. while still attempting to list the benefits of the product. My site, created by the parent co., for it's distributors, has all the user testimonials a potential buyer could want, and even has several recognizable celebrity name endorsements! Yet, I have not generated a single order through this site in almost a year!

Obviously I'm doing something very wrong.

As previously stated, everyone knows that the big boys in marketing always use mass or high-volume market penetration techniques, at enormous cost. For those with unlimited budgets, that might be a viable ROI risk, but as a small business operator, radio and tv ads and infomercials are out of the question.,and I cannot hire a publist, SEO team, or professsional marketing co. to do what I'm failing miserably at doing: creating revenue by generating massive traffic to gain website exposure.

Now that we know what I can't do, I'd like to know what I can do, all by my little lonesone self, on a home-based pc and with the entire Internet at my disposal.

I believe in my product, I use my product, and I know my product works.

But I'm having real communication issues in attempting to tell the world about it, and in getting others to try it!

There are so many downright bad, if not questionable avenues one might consider proceeding down, that one could easily end up broke, or even in trouble with the government for compliance violations, and privacy issues. In summary, here's where I am: I have multiple local and national, generic (not premium-at cost) co. listings on highly-trafficed websites and product marketplaces, a blog nobody reads, a corp. website with almost 500 hits (and no orders) in the last 30 days, occasional tweets going out to a little less than 50 followers, an undeveloped facebook page, Manta and Linked-Inconnections, and an empty bank account.

Writing great ads is one thing: but getting folks to respond is quite another.

I've attended marketing instruction seminars and have religeously studied the 'gurus' methods, and yeah, it really is all about gettting legit traffic which leads to product sales on-line....that's the $25,000 question, with no answer to date.

To obtain traffic you must have a good Google ranking. This involves proper onsite and offsite SEO. Second you must have engaging content. This will attract traffic via incoming links that are organically and naturally linked to your site. And finally you must have a good presence on social networks like Facebook. It's a lot of work at first, but once you establish traffic, it grows naturally.

Internet-based marketing is the #1 trend being pushed at small business folk right now.

Brick & mortar for many has come down to click & order.

Navigating the complex landscape of vendors in numerous cyber-markets peddling solutions to this issue can be dizzying,

frustrating, and downright disappointing.

So for those who do offer a legitimate product at a great price on-line, and have a user-friendly and

informative website as well, the question remains;

How does one get targeted traffic to first show up, second, to buy from them on their site, and third, to keep coming back?

For myself, I'm sure the the second and third goals will actualize on thier own, as long as I can start with, or generate not just traffic, but the right kind of visitors stopping by, and obviously they'llneed to visit in great volume for anything to happen.

So what do you think are the top 3 ways to generate legit web traffic?

Of course lack of affordability is what holds many of us back from experiencing the best that money can buy.

Search for answers

Ask the community

Most of the time, you just want to find content that has a particular phrase. Here are the easiest ways to find the content you want.

Enclose your search phrase in quotes. Search will try to find content with those words in the order you enclosed them. A search for "marketing advice" is going to return content with the phrase "marketing advice".

Search for content that has certain words, but not necessarily all of the words in order. This is the most basic search. Simply enter your search terms. For example: accept credit cards This will search for documents containing the words accept, credit, and cards

Using OR. The OR operator links two terms and finds a matching document if either of the terms exist in a document. To search for documents that contain either "web design" or just "online marketing" use the query: "web design" OR "online marketing"

Using AND. The AND operator says that the search should return content in which all of the search terms are present. To search for documents that contain both "web design" and just "online marketing" use a search like this: "web design" AND "online marketing"

We would appreciate having your voice in the Small Business Community. You can participate in a number of ways.

Start a discussion in our member-to-member forums. By participating in the Small Business Community, our members gain knowledge and connections that give them a competitive advantage in building a successful business. Take advantage of the collective experience and expertise of the community to get small business ideas and help with a specific question or business challenge.

To post your question in our community, in the “Ask the community” section, from the drop-down, select the category that you’d like to post to, then click the “Start a Discussion” button. If you simply want to introduce yourself to the community, please select the “Introduce Yourself” category.

Note: you must be a logged-in member of the community to post a discussion. Please login or become a member to participate.

Share your small business story. Do you have an interesting story to tell related to your small business? Have some advice for other entrepreneurs to help them avoid some of the pitfalls of small business ownership? We invite you to share your story with the Small Business Community. Click the “Share Your Story” link and simply answer the questions in our Share Your Story template.

Answer a question. Are you an expert in a particular area of running and growing a successful small business? Would you like to help other small business entrepreneurs by answering their questions? We would appreciate your expertise in the Small Business Community. Please click the “Answer a Question” link to see a list of the open questions asked by members of the community.

Bank of America is not responsible for user posts and other user content appearing on this website and does not endorse or guarantee the perspectives, the advice, the users, the businesses, or the products or services sold by any users or businesses that appear on this website. Bank of America, N.A. is providing these third-party websites and/or other sources only as a convenience, and does not monitor or maintain the information available on the external websites mentioned, nor represent or guarantee that such websites are accurate or complete, and they should not be relied upon as such. Bank of America provides informational reading materials for your discussion or review purposes only. Neither Bank of America, its affiliates, nor their employees provide legal, accounting and tax advice.